****Note: Yes I know that all these characters and more belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. She is a god send to us all!!!

***A/N - Also, I wanted to say THANK YO THANK YOU to all the people who reviewed just the first chapter. I hope that you all stay tuned in for more of the story as it unfolds. Sorry I didn't get this on fan fiction until now, but Spring Break took a hold of me and I couldn't do anything until I got back to my PC at college. THANKS again!

^_^ (\/) cyancat

When I Thought I'd Lost You

Ch.2

It seemed like hours to the friends of Mousse, that they had been waiting to find out more information on his condition. As the ambulance had taken him away, Ryoga and Ukyo had run up to see what was happening and were now with the rest of the group at the hospital. Akane, Kasumi, Soun, and Cologne were all sitting in the chairs provided. Shampoo leaned against a corner of the room, arms crossed, and staring down at the ground. Ranma sat on the floor beside Akane's seat, Ukyo was leaning up against the wall, Nabiki stood by the window staring out, and Ryoga sat on the floor against the wall beside Ukyo. A door opened down the corridor and they all diverted their attention to the approaching tall man in a white lab coat.

"Who is here for a Mu-Zu?"said the man as he looked around the group.

"We are!" said the group simultaneously, save for Cologne and Shampoo who said nothing.

"Urm. Ah well.. Is there any family here that I can talk with first?"

"Sorry, my boy, but he has no family here. I am an elder of his village. Tell me what you have to say." Cologne said as she hopped up on her cane.

"Well, I guess that will do, could we talk in private?"

"You have nothing to hide from these people. They are all friends of the boy and we all wish to know what is wrong with him."

"Very well then. The boy was brought in unconscious, so as we knew nothing on the boy's medical history we could only stabilize him to an extent until we got our test results back on him. He's fine for now, but it's what the test results tell that is what is the worst part and the cause of his problem,"

The doctor paused as if he wanted to give them a moment before they were to take the blow, "The boy has a large malignant tumor growing in his chest. That's the reason he's been having trouble breathing. It seems to look like it has grown rapidly in a short time which could be from a year to eighteen months of time. With its rapid growth, it been taking up space that is usually there for the lungs and heart. Its growth has also been probably feeding off the cancer cells that his immune system is not killing. His body is very weak even though you wouldn't see that from the outside, but inside him, his immune system hasn't been functioning like is should for an undetermined amount of time, thus becoming weaker and letting the cancer cells grow and reproduce."

A stunned silence filled the room as the doctor waited for a response.

"Mousse? You're talking about the guy from China with long black hair and glasses right? Are you sure its that Mousse?" Ranma said, not totally believing all that he heard.

"Yes, the person you speak of is the same I am talking about. No one else here could go by that description."

"How could he have a tumor? He's been fit since the day I met him!" said Ranma.

"Appearances can be deceiving, but there are many options to how he developed the tumor. Along with it never being diagnosed whenever, if he did, have a doctor's visit, trauma, stress, and exhaustion also add to the growth of cancer cells. His immune system was so run down that it couldn't fight off the usual amount of cancer cells that it does kill and so they started to grow and multiply quickly into what is now the tumor."

"Enough already, what can you do to save the boy?" Cologne said.

"Normally we would use radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery to try and get rid of the tumor. It's size is what causes some doctors to not even try to remove it. But there is a new surgery that has just been granted use to this hospital. It was experimental for the past few years, but now we are able to use it. The surgery takes a new technique at using lasers to remove large tumors in delicate places such as the brain, spinal cord, and the chest. I believe that this could save the boy's life."

Cologne pondered a moment as she thought on the doctors words. "And you would like to use this new surgery on Mousse, then? What is it that you need from us? Money?"

"Oh no, no, no. We don't need money at all for this surgery at all, since there was a large grant issued to us to pay for all the bills that are generated for this surgery. But what we need is your permission to go ahead with it. We understand that some people have morals and issues that deal with this or they feel like they don't want to be a guinea pig for the surgery, they can try other ways. So, what will it be?"

"So if this surgery is successful..."

"It'll seem as if he had never had a tumor at all and life can go as usual for him."

"But if it's not?"

"Nothing will have changed and the tumor will slowly grow larger and eventually kill him, crushing his heart and lungs."

'If you believe that it will cure him, then so be it. Permission is granted to you doctor, but use great care on that boy, for we'd all hate to lose him."

"Yes, we would take the utmost extreme care for him. Do not worry, he is in good hands. The surgery will be set up immediately. For all of you, I advise to get some rest. The night ahead will be long."

With that, the doctor turned around and walked quickly away down the corridor as one could without it being running.

Ryoga stood up from his seat on the floor and started to pace the room.

"I don't know how this could happen to a guy like Mousse. I mean he's a regular guy like Ranma and me. He fights with us and we always get beat up to some extent yet it doesn't happen to us. Why did it have to be him?" Ryoga said as he paced.

"No one could ever see something like this happening to him or any of us for that matter." Nabiki said as she turned to look at the group from her place by the window.

"Maybe it's my fault it happened to him..." Ranma said as he looked down the empty corridor that the doctor had disappeared down.

Akane's eyes grew wide with shock as she turned to look at the boy beside her. "Ranma! How can you say that? You can't take the blame for what happened to him! This isn't your fault and you know it!"

"How isn't this my fault? You heard the doc, he said stress and exhaustion could make this happen. Why do you think he's here? To defeat me! And I was the one to always knock him down. He pushed himself too far so that he could keep fighting me, just because he cares so much for Shampoo, he'd even kill himself trying."

Shampoo's head snapped up in shock Ranma's words penetrated into her head. She felt as if she had been in a bad dream. Before she had been staring down at the floor, yet she didn't see it. All she had seen was how her life had gone on with Mousse in her life. She remembered how he had been at age three and his proclamation to her when he had first arrived in Nerima to chase after her. Everything else around her had been drowned out when the doctor had explained what was wrong with Mousse. Now she had started to think twice about the life she lead with the people around her. What had shocked her and woken her up from her disdain, was the fact that Ranma had stated how much Mousse cared for her. Even he could see how much she meant to Mousse.

"No, not Ranma fault." Shampoo said faintly.

Everyone turned to look at Shampoo who had so abruptly spoken out.

"Shampoo? What do you mean?" Akane said.

"It not fault of Ranma, it not fault of anyone but Shampoo. Is all my fault Mousse sick. Is all my fault he fight all the time. It all my fault." She said dejectedly as if she was pleading guilty in court.

"Shampoo," Ukyo said as she walked forward towards the group from the wall, "You know it's not your fault. You can't put any blame on yourself just like Ranma shouldn't. You have to quit living in the past with all your regrets. Right now we gotta believe that he's gonna live through this."

Akane stood up and stopped in front of Shampoo. "Ukyo's right Shampoo. If you don't believe that he's gonna be alright, then neither is he. Forget about everything that's happened and hope for the best."

Shampoo opened her mouth ready to come back with an answer, but she could find nothing worth saying to the girl before her. She shut her mouth and dropped her head again to stare at the floor. Akane sighed heavily and then went back to sitting in the chair beside the dejected Ranma.

Shampoo thought to herself just how wrong they all were. She was to blame for all this. She was the reason he trained and fought all the time. She was the reason he worked so hard at the Nekohanten. She was the reason that he was even there in Japan. If she hadn't come back after Ranma, then he wouldn't have gotten sick. He would have stayed at the village and would have stayed healthy. Then she wouldn't have lost him.